As is well known to those skilled in the art, liquid hydrocarbons may be combined with alcohols, typically water-miscible alcohols. Typical of such products is a mixture of motor fuel, such as gasoline or naphtha with an alcohol, such as ethanol. It is found that such mixtures, which are normally single-phase mixtures when formulated from e.g. gasoline and anhydrous ethanol, pick up water from various sources during handling; and the presence of this water in amounts as small as 0.1 v %-4 v % causes the composition to separate into two phases: (i) a hydrocarbon phase and (ii) an alcohol-water phase.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method of stabilizing such mixture to prevent formation of more than one phase. Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.